If what we wear can provide clues to who we are, then perhaps our handbags may also be indications of identity; not only because of their intimate contents. Thus Mrs Thatcher's black Asprey handbag - hers for more than 30 years - became as emblematic of the Iron Lady as her firm grip and unyielding stare. Sold at a charity auction in June for £25,000, it gave rise to a new idiom in the 1980s - 'to handbag' - and was memorably described by Edwina Currie, a former minister in Thatcher's government, as not a shield, but a weapon. 'It said, "I'm the boss, I'm in charge. I have all this power and I have control… That's why the handbag was always so neat and tidy and black and shiny and dominant. It would go on the Cabinet table.'

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Whatever one's views on the legacy of Thatcherism, her solitary position as female Prime Minister appears to constitute a continuing exception that proves a rule. Twenty-one years after Thatcher's fall from power we live in an age when a principal function of the key woman at Number 10 is to act as an ambassador for British handbags, alongside fulfilling her wifely duties. (Hence the logic in having Anya Hindmarch as a trade envoy, and her former PR, Isabel Spearman, as special adviser to Samantha Cameron. As for what, precisely, Mrs Cameron carries inside her Smythson handbag, wouldn't we all love to know?)

Not that cynicism is an entirely useful analysis. Cheerleaders for the national handbag industry - myself included - must also celebrate its contribution to an otherwise faltering economy. Consider the achievement of Mulberry, whose creative director, Emma Hill, is a powerhouse that has transformed the label into a billion-pound concern (in the last financial year profits were up by 358 per cent). Interviewed by
Time
magazine last month, on the occasion of Mulberry's 40th anniversary and the opening of a New York store, Hill rather brilliantly identified several key components of success: 'More people are looking for a heritage bag… They are not looking for something that is going to be outdated the next season… I think a bag has to be really functional now… It's with you every day. It has to go with lots of outfits. You have to be able to use it. It cannot irritate you. I think your bag should become your best friend.'

If, like me, you cannot afford a Mulberry Alexa bag (£785), then why not consider an £85 Asos version in cheerful orange leather? It's the antithesis of Thatcher black, yet all the more friendly for that…